Derelict county house may soon be demolished

Recommendation coming before councillors

A derelict house in the middle of Peterborough County Forest may soon be demolished after all, more than two years after a citizens’ group tried to save it.

At a meeting on Wednesday, county council will hear a staff recommendation to tear down the remote, tumble-down house that has been used for years as a meet-up spot for hunters and snowmobilers.

The house is located deep in the Belmont-Dummer Block of the 5,000-acre forest owned by the County of Peterborough. (The nearest road is the 12th Line

Road Dummer.)

A county staff report states that with its smashed windows and exposed interior wiring, the house is an insurance liability that ought to be razed at once.

Staff has recommended demolition before, in late 2015. But at that time, the group Friends of the Peterborough County Forest wanted to save it.

At that time, the Friends told council they’d been fixing it up as best they could over the previous three years, using volunteer labour; they said the county had given them $4,500 for materials.

They also said they would do further work.

“Since that time, no significant work has been undertaken,” states a new report from county staff. “In fact, the house has become more dilapidated and has been broken into many times.”

Photos accompanying the report show smashed windows, large holes in the drywall (with fibreglass insulation visible inside) and exposed interior wiring. There’s also a letter from the Friends stating that they’re no longer interested in trying to save the building and won’t object if council wants to raze it.

“Much as we love the history of the building and enjoy having it in the forest for the use of the public, we just don’t have the energy to bring it to the level of care we had envisioned,” states a letter from Ross Cossar, one of the Friends.

Meanwhile the county’s insurance company also wrote a letter stating that the house is a liability for the county given that it is both remote and unsafe.

The house “has become a hazard or trap in an of itself ”, the letter states, and urges the county to tear it down.

The staff report states that there’s money in the 2018 budget to demolish the house.

Although it doesn’t state how much, county staff had estimated in 2015 that demolition would cost about $10,000.

Peterborough County council meets Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. in the lower level of the county courthouse.